first editions

[all]

Hi ,

Can anyone help me?  How do you know if you a book is a first edition as some books state this and others dont. someone told me to refer to the ISBN number and if it begins with a 0, then it is a first edition. Is this true ?

thanks a million

[sammy snake]

I don't know how to tell a firts edition but I do know that loads of ISBN's begin with a 0 and this does not signify a first ed.

[flanker]

I seem to recall the 0 after the ISBN number denotes which country the book was printed - 0 is UK.

[dafyd]

quite right - 0 is UK, 1 USA, 2 France, etc. The ISBN tells you nothing about the edition of a book.

 

For that information, you should look on the title page of the book (with all the copyright information on). At the bottom somewhere you should find a sequence of numbers. The lowest number there shows the edition - so if you have a Harry Potter with the numbers 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 on it, you have a first edition.

 

I've uploaded a scan of a first page to http://www.dafyd.me.uk/docs/book.jpg, on which I have highlighted the things to be looking for.

 

Hope that helps.